January 24, 2012

Why Copyright Owners Can't Give up on SOPA or its Derivatives

I've been watching this SOPA debacle unfold for over the past two (2) months.

["The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is a law (bill) of the United States proposed in 2011 to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods.

Proposals include barring advertising networks and payment facilities from conducting business with allegedly infringing websites, barring search engines from linking to the sites, and requiring Internet service providers (ISP) to block access to the sites.

The bill would criminalize the streaming of such content, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison"].

And everyone jumped on the bandwagon of a "free" Internet, that these large Internet companies touted:

But let me ask you the entrepreneur, business execective, copyright owner... is Google, Amazon or Yahoo providing you with their services for free?

What about your content that these large Internet companies help you make available to your end users, are these companies doing this provisioning, for free?

Or do they charge you a percentage royalty on the sales you make, or charge you monthly to provision your product or service on the "free" Internet?

The reality is that whilst end users may think that they're getting a free service, advertisers (including small copyright owners), pay through their noses to place ads or get their services distributed through these "free" services that these large Internet companies provide.

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If SOPA or any of its derivative bills that will protect copyright owners, is not passed in the US Congress, then small copyright owners will have no rights to their content online.

These copyright owners include authors, musicians, video publishers and in general, persons who develop content in written or media format, that can be sold.

Small content owners and developers depend on their intellectual property (IP) to feed themselves and their families and to provide jobs for others.

(The World Intellectual Property Organization defines Intellectual property as, "creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce").

When copyright infringers - thieves of other people's copyrights, are allowed to flourish online, they drive sales away from the original content owners' sites, making these owners starve, putting them in debt and eventually forcing them to close their businesses, which in turn, puts people of out jobs.

What is especially abhorrent is the fact that these large Internet companies blocked out sections of their websites, on Wednesday January 18, (aka the SOPA Blackout), to oppose a law that will protect the small man in America - (including the entrepreneur and the small business owner).

I'm appealing to:

1) The American people, especially small copyright owners, to lobby Congress assiduously, to reconsider SOPA or any of its derivatives that will help the small copyright owner

2) Congress to make your messages be clear re what SOPA or any of its derivatives is/will be and how it protects (will protect) small copyright owners - the small man in America...

...Please don't be bullied by these large Internet companies, whose very roots were built on the protection of their own copyright and other intellectual property rights.

If America is to experience a turn-around economically, you must protect the copyrights of all persons, not just those of the large Internet companies.

(The above photo of the website, Cracked.com's stance on SOPA and PIPA was used with permission, via Flickr.